Garment-supporter clasp.



No. 807,691. PATENTED DEC. 19, 1905.

D. L. SMITH & J. J. BUCHANAN. I

GARMENT SUPPORTBR GLASP.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 26, 1905.

UNITED STATES PATENT oFFion DWIGHT L. SMITH AND JOHN J. BUCHANAN, OF WATERBURY, CONNECTI- CUT, ASSIGNORS TOTHE WATERBURY BUCKLE COMPANY, OF WATER- BURY, CONNECTICUT, A CORPORATION.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 19, 1905.

Application filed June 26, 1905. Serial No. 267,019.

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that we, DWIGHT L. SMITH and JOHN J. BUoHANAN, citizens of the United States, residing at Waterbury, in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut,have invented a new and useful Improvement in Garment-Supporter Clasps; and we do hereby declare the following, when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings and the figures of reference marked thereon, to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, and which said drawings constitute part of this specification, and represent, in

Figure 1, a brokenview of a garter provided with our improved garment-supporter clasp; Fig. 2, a detached reverse view of the clasp; Fig. 3-; a view thereof in transverse section on the line a b of Fig. 2; Fig. 4, an edge view of the clasp as open; Fig. 5, a corresponding view showing it closed; Fig. 6, an end view looking toward the free ends of the jaws to show the transverse curvature in the inner jaw; Fig. 7, a broken view in inside elevation of the lower end of the outer jaw, showing the pad carried thereby; Fig. 8, a view in transverse section on the line 0 d of Fig. 1 through the jaws shown as closed; Fig. 9, a view in inside elevation of the lower end of the inner jaw, showing the gripping projections formed therein; Fig. 10; a view in transverse section on the line 6 f of Fig. 4 looking downward.

Our invention relates to an improvement in garment-supporter clasps, the object being to produce at a low cost for manufacture a clasp constructed with particular reference to compactness and neatness of form, fewness of parts, convenience and reliability of operation, and to the comfort of the wearer and the avoidance of injury to the article to which it is applied.

With these ends in view our invention consists in a garment-supporter clasp having certain details of construction and combinations of parts, as will be hereinafter described,

and pointed out in the claim.

As herein shown, the device consists of an inner jaw 2 and an outer jaw 3, connected by a bend 4, forming a spring tending to hold the free ends of the jaws normally apart, the said jaws being formed by bending a suitable blank of sheet metal upon itself. The rear portion of the bend 4 is clasped by the shank 5 of a sheet -metal loop 6, which may be of any approved construction and form and which receives when the supporter is used in mens garters the lower end of the usual short length of webbing 7 depending from a clasp 8, which may assume a variety of forms and does not need description. The edges of the inner jaw 2 are bent forward throughout its length to produce stiffened flanges 2 formed midway of their length with inwardly-extending perforated ears 9, receiving trunnions 10, formed at the extreme inner end of an operating-lever 1 1, having a cam-like elb ow 12 and passing outward through a lever-opening 13 in the outerjaw 3, the projecting end of the lever being curved to conform to the contour of the outer face of the jaw 3 and the bend 4, so that it will hug them, as it were, when in its closed position in'which the point of its elbow 12 projects slightly out of the opening 13, as shown in Fig. 5. In closing the lever 11 its elbow 12 coacts with the lower edge of the opening 13 in drawing the aws 2 and 3 together and finally holds them in their closed or gripping positions. The side edges of the outer jaw 3 are bent inward to form stiffening-flanges 3 The free end of the inner jaw 2 is struck forward to form two gripping projections 14, which take into the surface of a flat rubber pad 15, applied to the inner face of the lower end of the outer jaw 3, formed, as shown, with four integral spurs 16,which are bent over upon the pad to hold the same in place. The free ends of both jaws are rounded so as to present no points or corners either to the fabric or to the person of the wearer, while the free end of the inner jaw 2 is laterally concaved, as at 17, to con form to the curvature of the leg, and thus increase the comfort of the wearer. As clearly shown in Figs. 2 and 3, the outer jaw 3 is made slightly wider than the inner jaw 2, so that the side flanges 3 of the outer jaw 3 will shut outside, as it were, the side flanges 2 of the inner jaw and the ears 9 thereof, whereby the said ears are protected and prevented from having any portion of the garment caught upon them.

It is apparent that in carrying out our invention some changes from the construction herein shown and described may be made. We would therefore have it understood that we do not limit ourselves thereto, but hold ears and a cam-like elbow coacting with the outer edge of the said opening to hold the jaws in their closed or gripping positions,

and a pad applied to the end of one ofthe aws.

In testimony whereof we have signed this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

DWIGHT L. SMITH. JOHN J. BUCHANAN.

Witnesses:

. JoI-IN EOOLES, W. H. HART. 

